GW as a new player?

I've been looking for a quality free-to-play game to get into. The combination of those two requirements made me think of this game.

There are a few things holding me back from buying the game:
-The web is full of people complaining about the lack of new content and the decreasing number of players ingame.
-The official website seems to have died in the past few years, with tournaments, backstory and things like guild of the week being discontinued. All pointing to a lack of support/care for the game.
-The supposed impending arrival of GW2.

So what I want to know from you guys is: is GW, at this point, worth getting into as a new player? Are there still enough people to make the game fun? Anything else worth mentioning?

Wow, did I have a different experience!

My wife and I just started playing a couple weeks ago and we are in total game bliss. The community is active and the content is never-ending. I could say more here but check out my thread titled "New Husband and Wife duo with questions" (or something along those lines) for the play-by-play story and a glimpse at the community.

You will *not* be disappointed.

New content? If you play without people helping you too much and following the full story line in order of release, you can easily spend 50-100+ hours your1st time through. New content won't be a problem for a while unless you speed through it with help and guidance. Give it a go. Trilogy goes on sale for under 30 bucks every so often. Lot of bang for the buck.

- While there aren't as many players as there used to be; Guild Wars (in my opinion) has one of the best communities I've ever played with. Join a good guild and you should have no problem grouping up.
ArenaNet doesn't currently have plans for new paid expansions for Guild Wars. However, they have released a number of free (rather impressive) "mini" expansions. These include War in Kryta and Winds of Change to name the most recent. ArenaNet also patches the game regularly, perhaps not fast enough for some but they do indeed still support Guild Wars. The web is full of people complaining no matter what game you play.

- Things like Guild of the Week have died out over the years. However, there are still Monthly Automated Tournaments (MATS) with a guild ranking system in place. Most of the new content, backstory, and documentation takes place on the official wiki. ArenaNet cares very much about the game. They do, however, have a smaller live team than they used to working on Guild Wars 1.

- The impending arrival of Guild Wars 2 has had a love-hate relationship with Guild Wars 1. Some people who had previously quit the game came back to Guild Wars to work on their Hall of Monuments (which will be carried over to Guild Wars 2). Some people who had been playing Guild Wars for a long time stopped playing when they announced Guild Wars 2.

Overall Guild Wars is still very much an alive game.

Hope I helped,
wombonk

Even if there was a lack of new content what's the problem as a new player there is plenty of content.
By the time you have learned the game and fought your way through 4 campaigns and tried out pvp you will have had months of rewarding gameplay.

Then there is the war in Kryta mini campaign addition and the new one Winds of Change.
Filling your hall of monuments by collecting items and gaining titles to gain some goodies to be used in GW2.
You will get your moneys worth believe me.

Yes there are fewer players in the game than in the first couple of years.
Yes also the large numbers of players following the quest lines are largely gone.
They have been replaced with the ability to create a party out of Ai controlled heroes so you can play even if you happen to hit a part of the game that is underpopulated.

Your level of satisfaction will lie in part in where your priorities lie.

If you like to PvP, that scene is definitely not what it once was. Lots of disgruntled PvPers these days (but, then, that's just how PvPers are...). However, you still can get matches in most formats, so if you have no idea what "the glory days" were like, you might not even notice.

If you like to group up with random people and move through the storylines with other players, you may be disappointed unless you join a guild of like-minded individuals. Most PUGs are title-hunting or doing end-game content. That does not mean you will be handicapped. The game is perfectly doable and even enjoyable with heroes or henchmen (AI party members).

As others have said, although the staff working on GW1 is much smaller, they still pump out updates and new content. The game is not stagnating; it's far from "dead."

You can get the trilogy very cheaply nowadays. If you're looking for something to fill your time while you wait for GW2, you could do a lot worse than picking up a copy and checking out what GW has to offer.

Obviously a new player in a game like this will have no lack of content. What I mean when I say that I'm worried about it is that older players don't get a renewed incentive to play.

I play MMO's for what they are. I'm not looking to pick one up and spend most of my time in it questing or hunting alone. If I wanted to do that I'd just play a single player game that does it better.

So to clarify my original post: I'm checking to make sure that I'll have people to play with and not walk around alone half of the time.
I understand that the level grind will be mostly solo, as it is in any older MMO, but once I'm done with that I'd like to have people to play with.

im returning to the game after some years away and having forgotten everything to do with it i am,in essence a beginner.
im starting with the first game,(ive ordered the others) and i find if you play it just for the enjoyment of the game its actually very good! ive got mates of mine who are getting the game and starting out so there are going to be people to play with.
the community i have found to be very friendly to newcomers like myself and patiently answer my dumb questions!
ive tried a couple of other mmo's and was put off them in a very short time because of the miserable squirts playing them. im sure this game will have its share of same but thus far ive not come across them.
me and my pals are going to play this in as friendly a way as we can and we'd happily include any like minded souls who like a good game just for what it is,a fun time! cheers

There isn't much level grind in this game, as most of the content comes after hitting a higher/max level (in Nightfall and Factions), but I can say community is still there and substantial, I myself am returning to the game with a fresh account and the community is just as active as it was about 2 years ago.

As I alluded in my previous post, there is incentive for veterans to replay content to an extent -- there are titles and quests that encourage doing old missions -- but most of these are done in Hard Mode, which is only accessible once you've gone through it once in Normal Mode. On the rotated quest day, you can find a PUG rather easily -- for Hard Mode.

Now, there are people who are returning to the game or trying it out for the first time to get ready for GW2. They can be found along the way, here and there, and the game does try to facilitate finding groups at a PUG hub called Embark Beach. But they're not a guarantee. The only way to guarantee people who will be willing to hook up with you in lowbie missions is to join a newbie-friendly guild. We have a great Guild Recruitment section here on Guru.

Its taken almost 7 years for some people to start moaning about new content and saying the game is dead. That means YOU as a new player, still have 6-7 years off G.W fun left. G.W is not dead and is still very active. If you want to play G.W an till G.W 2 comes out then you have more then enough content.
I have played this game for 6 years and even though there is not much major content left for me to do, I still find my self playing everyday.

In my opinion you will have to do some parts of the game solo or be prepared to wait on a party.
It is quite likely that some of the out of the way outposts will have no one in them a lot of the time.

When it first came out every outpost was crowded and it was pretty easy to get in a party fairly quickly and do a number of missions.
5 years on and the game is still well populated at least in the major towns, problem is the proportion of players still following the missions is quite small and the additional content is partly responsible.

If there was no war in kryta, winds of change, zaishen quests, hard mode, titles and hall of monuments few would be playing.
Because of this new content we have loads of players but many are doing just the added content which is not what a new player needs.

You will be able to find parties but you will at times have to make your own party of henchmen and or heroes.

Some of us just like spending time with our guildies and allies


I find GW perfectly playable alone. But thats what guilds are for, find yourself a nice guild that welcomes new players and talk a lot in chat.

There is a section here where you can tell the community about yourself enough to hook up with a suitable guiild.

Not necessarily, even quite long term players can be levelling up new characters. And any player can go to any area so your guildies can help you even if they are high level (you wont learn much that way though).

and it is not exactly level grind - apart from Proph it is really quite quick to get to max level and in Proph there is a strong strory and beautiful scenery to keep you going

Ok, I hear your actual question now. I'm like you in the respect that I don't join an MMO to solo through a bunch of instances, I want to feel like I'm part of an alive, active community, so I had some significant concerns coming into this game.

Things to consider:

1) The missions and adventuring areas outside of town are all instanced as far as I can tell. Only the towns and outposts are player hubs (and even those are instanced into districts to control over-population).
2) All of the common areas that my wife and I have visited have been full of players, even the starter areas. If this is a diminished player base, the game must have been *incredibly* crowded before. The fact that they *still* instance player districts tells you about in game population.
3) All content can be solo'd or filled with players, at your discretion. This worried me, initially, as I am not a fan of pet management and I don't play MMO's to solo, but my wife and I have enjoyed duo'ing here more than anywhere else, it's been quite gratifying. But if you don't have friends to play with or not in a guild, I would imagine it could get lonely.

Good luck

Wait till a festival starts and the main trading districts go from around 4 districts to high double figures.
You start to get cannot enter district 1-20s because they are full.
Halloween is coming so you will see that soon enough.